U.S. deploys bulk of stealthy long-range missile for Iran war

The next steps in the US military campaign against Iran will commit nearly its entire inventory of stealthy JASSM-ER cruise missiles, drawing them from stockpiles devoted to other regions.

The order to pull the $1.5 million weapon from Pacific stockpiles was issued at the end of March, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. Missiles at US facilities elsewhere, including the continental US, will be moved to US Central Command bases or Fairford in the UK, said the person, who was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive details.

After the moves, only about 425 JASSM-ER out of a prewar inventory of 2,300 will remain available for the rest of the globe. That would be roughly enough for 17 B-1B bombers on a single mission. Another 75 or so are “unserviceable” because of damage or technical faults.

The JASSM-ER, or Joint Air-to-Surface Missile-Extended Range, can fly more than 600 miles and was designed to hit targets at a safer distances to avoid an enemy’s air defenses. 

Along with the shorter-range JASSM — which has a range of about 250 miles, about two-thirds of US stockpiles have been committed to the Iran war, the person said.

Supplies of missile interceptors and long-range strike weapons have been at issue since the US and Israel launched their air campaign on Feb. 28. Replacing what has been used would take many years’ worth of production at current levels.

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The US has been using large numbers of long-range weapons like JASSM-ER for strikes, limiting the risk to service members but reducing stocks of systems meant for more capable adversaries such as China.

The US and Israel have said they destroyed a significant portion of Iran’s air defenses, allowing them to use cheaper weapons to hit targets in the country. But a US F-15E strike fighter was shot down on Friday. Soon afterward, an A-10 attack jet was downed and two combat search-and-rescue helicopters were hit by Iranian fire, the New York Times reported.

US operations through the first four weeks of the war consumed more than 1,000 JASSM-ERs, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. US aircraft also fired 47 during the raid to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the person said.

The US has allocated funds to buy more than 6,200 JASSMs since 2009, and production of the baseline JASSM for US supplies ended about 10 years ago.

Lockheed Martin Corp.’s scheduled production rate for 2026 is 396 of the longer-range version, although as many as 860 can be manufactured if the line, which also produces the LRASM anti-ship missile, is fully geared toward JASSMs. 

Committing so many JASSM-ERs to the Iran war does not mean they will all be used. So far they have been launched from B-52 and B-1B bombers, as well as strike fighters.

US Central Command and the Department of Defense did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

‘Stone Ages’

It’s not clear what President Donald Trump is planning next for the US campaign. As ground troops, including Marines and paratroopers, move to the region, speculation has swirled about seizing Kharg island, home to Iran’s main oil terminals.

Trump said in a Wednesday night speech that “over the next two to three weeks, we’re going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong,” without specifying what that meant for Iran’s civilians, military or government. 

On Tuesday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Dan Caine said the US had begun to fly B-52s over Iran, implying that airspace was now safer for attacks using cheaper and more plentiful JDAM precision bombs.

But along with the two US planes downed on Friday, Iran has also destroyed more than 12 MQ-9 strike drones during the course of the war.  

The fact that the older, slower B-52s were only now flying over Iran “raises questions about the degree to which the US has continued to rely on standoff capabilities,” said Kelly Grieco, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center.

Iran has launched more than 1,600 ballistic missiles around the region, according to Gulf countries’ official reporting, and about 4,000 Shahed-type rudimentary cruise missiles. Defending against ballistic missiles alone would consume at least 3,200 interceptors.

While Lockheed Martin makes about 650 Patriot PAC-3 interceptors per year, the company signed an agreement in January to make 2,000 a year by 2030. The company also makes 96 THAAD interceptors per year, but reached a separate deal to increase that number to 400.

The US has fired hundreds of Tomahawk cruise missiles during the attack on Iran. There were about 4,000 Tomahawks in US stockpiles before the war — including older models and anti-ship variants. RTX Corp. produced about 100 new missiles in 2025, while about 240 older models were upgraded to the latest Block V standard. 

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com